"Epiphany": Art and Poetry by Sheila Benedis

            EPIPHANY

             asemic writing

  no specific semantic content

 

        calligraphic language  

            sinuous shapes

 

 a poem repeated compulsively

 renders itself partially illegible

 

         bypasses meaning

unlocks the power of the illegible

 

      blank between words

           asemic spacing

 

         words of a poem

               crawl in

 

        words crawl out

    go round and round

 

  inside becomes outside

turning twisting road of life

 

    movement of words

       transformation                                                                     

 

           suddenly

  a lively gestural scrawl

 

   an aesthetic impulse

            intuition

 

         a form of art

an engine of quiet wonder 

 

         an epiphany

For You Birders Out There . . .

Flaco vs. the Ornery Ornithologist

When Flaco the owl fled the Central Park Zoo,

Through vandalized mesh (yeah, so what else is new?)

The renowned ornithologist, Dr. Olive O’Duff,

Said, “We must capture that bird and I know my stuff.

What bird in his right mind survives in New Yawk?

He’ll get eaten and chomped by a rat or a hawk.

He will nibble on poison, sriracha and hoisin.

He’s nuts as a loon, thinks he’s out for a lark.

Get him back in his cage! Get him back before dark!”

But Flaco the owl, now as free as a bird,

Flew to places of which he only had heard.

Bergdorf’s and MoMA, the Highline, the Met,

Off on a flight he would never forget:

“It’s a hoot and a howl and a hot hootenanny,

Exploring Manhattan, each nook and each cranny.”

Ah, but Dr. O’Duff said, “I gotta be tough,

This Flaco is wacko, and enough is enough.

It’s for the bird, I’m his staunchest proponent,

I value his vigor, that worthy opponent.

Does he think he’ll survive outside of captivity?

Bait the traps, men, and damn his proclivity!

Flaco, meanwhile, was nothing but smiles,

Flying o’er rooftops and mocking gargoyles.

Bird watchers watched him and pointed and stared.

“You’ll never taste freedom if you haven’t dared.

You don’t need to be smart,

Just sharpen your claws,

Keep your hearing superb.”

He was met with applause.

When Olive O’ heard this, her feathers were ruffled,

She said to her minions in a voice soft and muffled:

“Flaco has taught me, better shoot for the moon,

Be brisk, take the risk, and owl’ll be seeing you soon.”

— Lou Craft, Metropolitan Diary, NY Times, March 26, 2023

In case you’ve missed The Adventures of Flaco, copy and past this into your browser (the thing you search the Internet with):

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/03/nyregion/flaco-owl-central-park-nyc.html

Contributed by Jane Hart

Special Observances: April 3 - April 9

April 3: Find a Rainbow Day

This special day was created to celebrate the beauty and wonder of the natural world. It's a chance to get outside, explore nature, and look for those colorful arcs in the sky.

April 3: International Carrot Day

The first annual celebration of this vibrant root occurred in the year 2003 with the pure intention of celebrating the staple salad ingredient. As of now, celebrations have been reported to occur in France, Italy, Sweden, Russia, Australia, Japan, and the U.K. Carrots are a rather hearty plant that can grow in many diverse conditions, though they typically come into harvest in the summer and fall. Be the first one on your floor to have a Carrot Party! (Hint for next year: National Carrot Cake Day is February 3.)

April 5: National Dandelion Day

On April 5, Dandelion Day, celebrate the benefits and beauty of this perennial plant many consider a weed. These beautiful flowers have not only been used as bouquets for mom and crowns for children, but have a long medicinal and edible history. In the early springtime, pollinators thrive on dandelions. The name dandelion comes from the French “dent de lion” meaning lion’s tooth, referring to the leaves with their jagged tooth-like edges.

April 6: National Teflon Day

National Teflon Day on April 6 each year honors the accidental invention of Teflon on April 6, 1938, by Dr. Roy Plunkett. While working in the E. I. du Pont de Nemours lab that April day, Plunkett and his assistant accidentally discovered polytetrafluoroethylene. Chemours registered the Teflon trademark in 1945. In 1985, the Inventors’ Hall of Fame inducted Dr. Plunkett into its numbers. 

April 7: International Snailpapers Day

International Snailpapers Day is celebrated on April 7. Snailpapers are newspapers. The term stems from a post that is written on a piece of paper and carried from one location to another as snail mail. International Snailpapers Day honors the good old days when printed newspapers were important before they were surpassed by internet editions. 

April 8: Draw a Bird Day

Draw Bird Day originated in 1943. It is said that 7-year-old Dorie Cooper visited her uncle at the hospital in the U.K. He had been wounded in the war. When Dorie came to the hospital, she asked her uncle to draw a bird to cheer him up. After seeing her uncle’s picture, she started laughing and exclaimed that he was not a good artist. Although the picture of her uncle was not very good, she hung it in her room, which lifted her uncle’s spirits mightily. Every time Dorie came to visit her uncle thereafter, other wounded soldiers also had their day brightened by the event and held drawing contests to see who could produce the best bird pictures. The entire ward’s walls were decorated with bird drawings within several months.

 

Three years later, Dorie was killed in a car accident. Her coffin was full of bird drawings made by soldiers, nurses, and doctors from the war. Draw a Bird Day is celebrated to express joy in the simplest of things in life and as a way to help soldiers to forget the war at least for a short time. Dorie helped her uncle to forget the war by something as simple as drawing birds.

April 9: National Name Yourself Day

National Name Yourself Day on April 9 each year proposes one day a year to reinvent our names. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to have a different name, this would be the day to find out. Whether you like your name or not, this day is about having fun with a different name. So, ignore your Kendal name tag. Slap a new name on your chest and wear it with pride.

Art by Hart

Connie was penny-wise and crafty, making her new Spring dress out of a Post-it.

Since he charged by the claw, you couldn't tell if Roland, the premier pet podiatrist, was padding his bill.

Once coveted for high society wedding cakes, the Whitmores maintain a modest living on later-in-life third marriages.

Mark's mother always said he'd be a great catch.

Art and Photos by Jane Hart

Special Observances, March 27 - April 2

March 27: National Joe Day

National Joe Day: celebrates all the people with the name or nickname Joe: Jo, Joey, Joseph, Josephine Joette, Jody, Johanna, Jodie, or any other variant of the name Joe. Why National Joe Day? Well, why not?

March 28: Eat an Eskimo Pie Day

National Eat an Eskimo Pie Day: is celebrated annually on March 28. It commemorates the discovery of America’s first chocolate-covered ice cream bar, also known as Eskimo’s Pie, a frozen treat made of a vanilla ice cream bar and chocolate coating served on a stick.

March 29: National Little Red Wagon Day

National Little Red Wagon Day: celebrated annually on the last Wednesday of March, honors the original Little Red Wagon®. This day celebrates the power of imagination on wheels as children of all ages (and all sexes) take flight with their little red wagons. Did you have one?

National Pencil Day

National Pencil Day: is March 30, the perfect moment to explore these old writing tools. The pencil has meant so much to mankind. It allows expression, creativity, and scribbles and doodles. One pencil can write up to 45,000 words!

International Hug a Medievalist Day

International Hug a Medievalist Day: According to New Yorker writer Macy Halford, medievalists “are always very interested in the body, the bawdy, and the beautiful, by which [she means] they have a profound interest in the nitty-gritty of Western culture—in its material composition and the spiritual and intellectual urges that give rise to it . . . medievalists are uniformly possessed of an excellent if slightly juvenile sense of humor . . .  more pronounced when they drink and their inherent social awkwardness wears off.” So, go find one and hug it, already!

April One: April Fool’s Day

April Fools’ (or Fools or Fools’) Day: is an annual custom on April 1 consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Even mass media can be involved. The origin of April Fool’s Day is not know. Or is that an April Fool’s prank?

April 2: National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day

National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day: On April 2nd each year, celebrating a classic food favorite. The average American will have eaten over 2000 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by the time they graduate from high school. Not to be confused with National Peanut Butter Day, which everyone knows is January 24.

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Photographs of life at Kendal on Hudson are by residents.